Image sensors have become ubiquitous. They are widely used in digital still cameras, cellular phones, security cameras, as well as, medical, automobile, and other applications. The technology used to manufacture image sensors, and in particular, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (“CMOS”) image sensors (“CIS”), has continued to advance at great pace. For example, the demands of higher resolution and lower power consumption have encouraged the further miniaturization and integration of these image sensors.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating pixel circuitry of two four-transistor (“4T”) pixel cells Pa and Pb (collectively pixel cells 100) within an image sensor array. Pixel cells Pa and Pb are arranged in two rows and one column and time share a single readout column line. Each pixel cell 100 includes a photodiode PD, a transfer transistor T1, a reset transistor T2, a source-follower (“SF”) or amplifier (“AMP”) transistor T3, and a row select (“RS”) transistor T4.
During operation, transfer transistor T1 receives a transfer signal TX, which transfers the charge accumulated in photodiode PD to a floating diffusion (FD) node. Reset transistor T2 is coupled between a power rail VDD and the FD node to reset the pixel (e.g., discharge or charge the FD and the PD to a preset voltage) under control of a reset signal RST. The FD node is coupled to control the gate of AMP transistor T3. AMP transistor T3 is coupled between the power rail VDD and RS transistor T4. AMP transistor T3 operates as a source-follower providing a high impedance connection to the FD node. Finally, RS transistor T4 selectively couples the output of the pixel circuitry to the readout column line under control of a signal RS.
In normal operation, the photodiode PD and the FD node are reset by temporarily asserting the reset signal RST and the transfer signal TX. The image accumulation window (exposure period) is commenced by de-asserting the transfer signal TX and permitting incident light to charge the photodiode PD. As photo-generated electrons accumulate on the photodiode PD, its voltage decreases (electrons are negative charge carriers). The voltage or charge on photodiode PD is indicative of the intensity of the light incident on the photodiode PD during the exposure period. At the end of the exposure period, the reset signal RST is de-asserted to isolate the FD node and the transfer signal TX is asserted to couple the photodiode to the FD node and hence the gate of AMP transistor T3. The charge transfer causes the voltage of the FD node to drop by an amount of proportional to photogenerated electrons accumulated on the photodiode PD during the exposure period. This second voltage biases AMP transistor T3, which is coupled to the readout column line when the signal RS is asserted on RS transistor T4.
The conversion gain of pixel cells 100 is defined as the ratio (R) of the change in voltage at the FD node after charge transfer to the change in charge transferred to the FD node. Conversion gain (R) is inversely proportional to the capacitance of the FD node. A high conversion gain R can be beneficial to improve low-light sensitivity. For traditional image sensors, conversion gain can be increased by reducing the capacitance of the FD node. However, as pixel cell sizes continue to shrink, pixel saturation or overexposure in bright environments is becoming more acute.